Giant's Fire
by pistonsfan75
Summary: What if Jon and Ygritte had just stayed in that cave? Would the world have let them be? Or would reality catch up with them eventually? Jon/Ygritte, somewhat canon divergent.


Jon and Ygritte snuggled up together under blankets and furs, on the opposite side of the fire from Tormund and the others. The love they'd just made in the cave was fresh on their minds. They'd joined together their mouths, bodies and spirits.

They both lay quietly staring up at the stars and listening to the direwolves howling in the distance.

Suddenly, a large green streak of light appeared in the dark sky. Jon jumped.

"What is that?"

"It's the souls of ancient giants, dancing around a fire. It means we'll have good hunting. We call it the Giganzfizer or Giant's Fire."

They both lay quietly again, watching the colors dance wildly across the sky, Ygritte's head on Jon's shoulder. Soon, Jon could feel Ygritte's soft, even breathing and knew she'd fallen asleep. He wondered if his brothers at the wall could see the lights.

Winterfell was over 600 miles south of the wall, and he'd never seen the lights there. His father had never mentioned them, so he probably never had, either. He told himself that if he ever made it back to Castle Black, he'd ask Maester Aemon about it.

Thinking about Castle Black and Winterfell made Jon think hard about what he had with Ygritte. He sighed as he glanced down at the feisty redhead sleeping on his chest.

Was he leading her on? Did he love her?

He thought back to his conversation with Sam about sex. Jon had told him all about Ros, how beautiful she was, but how he couldn't do it because he didn't want to bring a bastard into the world.

Now he worried he'd put a bastard in Ygritte's belly. They'd made love 3 times in that cave. She told him she never wanted to leave.

Maybe they could live there, together, forever. Raise a couple of red headed, blue eyed children, away from the rest of the world.

As if they'd heard him, he suddenly remembered his brothers at the wall reciting their Night's Watch vows.

Night gathers,

And now my watch begins.

It shall not end until my death.

I shall take no wife,

Hold no lands,

Father no children.

I shall wear no crowns

And win no glory.

I shall live and die at my post.

I am the sword in the darkness.

I am the watcher on the walls.

I am the fire

That burns against the cold,

The light that brings the dawn,

The horn that wakes the sleepers,

The shield that guards the realms of men.

I pledge my life and honor

to the Night's Watch,

For this night,

And all nights to come.

Ygritte sighed and snuggled closer into his chest as a cold wind blew around them. The fire flickered, then blew out. Tormund opened his eyes, then jumped up. Seeing the two of them, he smiled briefly, but then grew serious as he looked at the sky.

"There's a storm coming. Let's get in the cave."

The group of them quickly gathered and packed up their things and headed into the cave. It was warm inside, so no one built a fire. The hot springs gave off steam into the air. Jon's cheeks burned as he remembered what had taken place there the day before. He caught Ygritte's eyes and they smiled.

After everyone else had laid down and gone back to sleep, she grabbed his hand and took him further into the cave. There, they found more steaming hot springs. They made love again, and then again soon after.

"I don't ever want to leave this cave, Jon Snow." They were sitting in one of the hot springs, his arm around her and her head on his shoulder.

"Me neither. Maybe we don't have to. Has anyone ever lived in these caves?"

"Yes. We do when the snows get high."

"What do you eat?"

"Moss. Fish. Guano. Bugs."

"Guano?"

"Bat droppings." Ygritte smirked.

"Bat what? No. I'm not eating that. No!"

"You will if you're hungry enough."

"No."

"You know nothing, Jon Snow." She climbed on him and once again, their mouths, spirits and bodies joined. After, they went back to the rest of the group and fell asleep.

When they all woke up, they scavenged the cave for food. A few fish, a few bugs and some guano. Jon stared at it, but since they hadn't eaten since the morning before, he tried all of it. And it wasn't bad.

After they ate, they walked to the cave entrance. It was blocked in by snow.

Tormund laughed. "I guess we're staying here."

The next day, it was still blocked. And the next. It stayed blocked by snow for over a week.

After 9 days of being trapped in the cave, they were finally able to leave. Everybody except Jon and Ygritte. As Tormund was leaving, he stopped and nodded at them.

"You're staying, you and the pretty crow?"

"We're staying."

The days passed by peacefully in the cave, the two lovers blissfully trying to ignore reality. Both knew eventually life would catch up with them. It didn't take long.

After two weeks of trying to forget the rest of the world, Ygritte had a surprise for Jon. They were sitting in one of the hot springs when she told him.

"We're having a baby, Jon Snow." He sat straight up and stared at her.

"What, don't tell me you didn't know that caused that?"

"Of course I knew." Jon sat back against the rock with a sigh. "So what do we do?"

"We stay here."

"We stay here and have a baby?"

"Yup."

"I've never delivered a baby."

"I have. We'll manage. Now let's go find some fish and moss, I'm hungry."

More days passed. Tormund checked on them a couple times, but couldn't persuade either to leave the cave. He told them about the White Walker's attack on the Night's Watch, and that he and the others were going to climb the wall. He also told them there was rumored to be magic in the cave that prevented the White Walkers from entering.

Before leaving, Tormund tried one more time to persuade Jon and Ygritte to come with them. Ygritte was starting to show, and finally told him about the baby. She didn't think she should climb the wall in her condition. Tormund thought otherwise.

In the end, he left without them. Really, there was nowhere that was safe for a wildling woman and a brother of the Night's Watch who were in love and having a baby. They weren't safe south of the wall, and they weren't safe north of the wall.

Jon still didn't like the idea of eating bat droppings, but he did it. It was that, or starve. Every day when they woke up, they hunted for food. Then they soaked in the hot springs, hunted for more food, went back to the hot springs, then fell asleep.

One night, Ygritte woke up with incredible stomach cramps. They persisted, and kept getting closer together. She squeezed Jon's hands through each one. She climbed into a hot spring, and labored there for a while. As Jon was helping her out of the water, a gush of fluid came out of her.

She delivered a pale, silent son moments later. No cries came from his lips. Ygritte wrapped his body in furs and held him to his chest as she sobbed and Jon held her close.

He soon noticed she was getting paler and weaker. The firs under them were soaked with blood.

"Jon…" Ygritte's voice was barely more than a whisper. "Take me outside. I want to see the Giant's Fire one more time."

With tears running down his cheeks, he carried her to the cave entrance, their dead son still in her arms.

The Giant's Fire was painted across the sky in brilliant streaks of green, blue and white. It undulated and dipped, almost like it was coming toward them. Ygritte's breath grew weaker and more shallow as she watched the brilliant colors flying across the indigo sky.

"You know nothing, Jon Snow."

Jon kissed her one last time, and she took her last breath. How long he stood there, in that cave entrance, with his dead lover and son in his arms, he didn't know.

Slowly, he walked back to the hot spring where she'd given birth. There, he burned both of their bodies. He couldn't risk the fire attracting unwanted attention, either from enemies or White Walkers.

Jon sat numbly, watching the flames. He wondered where his birth mother was. He could use a real mother right now. Someone to help him make sense of everything that had transpired.

Eddard Snow. That's what he'd name their son.

Then he bundled up what he had and headed back to Castle Black, completely alone. The day before, he'd had a lover and a baby on the way. Now, it was only him.

################

Tormund had climbed the wall with his clan, then climbed it again to come home. It had been a year since he'd left Ygritte and the pretty crow in the cave. He entered it tentatively, unsure who might be in it.

There was no sign of the pretty crow, but he found what looked like Ygritte's burned body, with a baby in her arms. Both must have died when she gave birth, and the crow burned their bodies so the White Walkers couldn't turn them.

#################

Back at Castle Black, Jon privately told Sam about Ygritte, and his son that he'd named Eddard Snow. He told him about living in the cave for so many months. Sam was amazed at all of it, especially that Jon had eaten bat droppings, and not just once. True to himself, Sam swore he'd never tell a soul.

When he was on watch duty, which was usually with Sam, he often stared out at the lands behind the wall and thought about Ygritte and Eddard.

Sam knew he was grieving still, so he usually just left him to his thoughts. Sometimes, though, Jon would talk about her and the baby.

"It was a boy, Sam. I would have had a son. We could have lived in that cave forever."

"You really think you could have stayed in that cave for the rest of your lives?"

"No, I guess not. It would have been better for Eddard to see more of the world."

#######################

When Sansa came to Castle Black with Lady Brienne and Podrick Payne, Jon told her about Ygritte and little Eddard.

When he was reunited with Bran, his younger brother brought it up to him. They were at the Weirwood tree.

"I'm sorry I never got to meet Eddard Snow. I'm sure he would have taken after both his parents and been a smart, adventurous lad."

"You saw that?"

"I see everything that happened in the past. There's no way you could have saved her. Or him."

Jon stared at Bran. "Are you sure?" He'd been over and over it all in his mind, every day, thinking of everything he could have done differently.

"I'm sure. Her placenta had partially detached from her uterus, that's why he died and then she kept bleeding after he was born. Even the best maesters couldn't have saved her."

Jon nodded, overcome with too much emotion to speak.

"You would have been a good father, Jon."

"Thanks, Bran."

When he was reunited with Arya by the Weirwood tree, he told her, too. She didn't say much, but hugged him again. She told him about her own experiences at Harrenhall, with the Brotherhood, Sandor Clegane and about the Faceless Men.

##############################

On the way back up to the real north, after everything, Jon and Tormund finally talked about Ygritte.

"She died having that baby?"

"Aye. She did. The boy was born silent. She kept bleeding, and didn't stop and was fading further away from me. I carried her outside the cave so she could see the Giant's Fire one last time."

"Did you love her?"

"I did."

Tormund stopped his horse, and nodded to his right. It was the cave they lived in.

"Go ahead. I'll wait outside."

Jon tied his horse and tentatively walked inside. There, he saw Ygritte's and Eddard's ashes and bones. He knelt down by them, staring and remembering. He ran his hand through the hot spring, remembering the hundreds of hours spent in this one and others.

He'd never stopped loving her. Even when the Dragon Queen was in his life, Ygritte's face had been in his thoughts every day.

"I'll never forget you, Ygritte. Or you, little Eddard."

Jon left the cave for the last time, and joined Tormund outside. They pushed their horses to a gallop to catch up with the rest of the Free Folk. The whole clan was headed back to Hardhome. There was good hunting there, with close proximity to a river for fresh water. It was a good place for a new start, for Jon and all of the Free Folk.


End file.
